Corruption
by Someone silly
Summary: The gems pursue a new adventure, that may uncover something that they would rather have kept buried.
1. Chapter 1

Chapter 1: Crushed

The shining sun hovered high in the sky over the beach side city that sunny summer day, as a young boy strolled down the sandy shore to his home. The salty sea air rolled through his curly black hair. The gurgling of the waves mixed with the crunch of the sand beneath his sandals, and crinkling of the bags in his hand created a seaside symphony he was all too accustomed to.

Soon the blazing sun light disappeared, blocked by the towering cliff face concealing the child's home, imbedded in the stomach of the cliff. Plodding up the creaky wooden stairs, the child could hear steps coming from within the home.

THUMP!

Suddenly, a hefty woman pressed her face against the large window to his right. "There you are!" She cried, her lilac cheeks being torn away from the clear plane, and vanishing out of sight. The boy chuckled at the spectacle, the last step behind him. As quickly as she vanished, she appeared behind the screen door, hand on handle, swinging it open with great speed, smirking playfully.

As quick as a flash, the boy was hoist above her head, a tall order for most considering the boy's… proportions. "Come on Steven, we've got a mission!" She cheered; dashing inside with Steven's back just barely clipping the top of the door frame, him pulling the door shut, so close to entrapping the woman's ludicrously long mane.

Before they could finish their travel, the woman's woody stomps stopped. A familiar, delectable scent wafted around her snout. "Did the other gems leave without us Amythyst?" Steven questioned, his arms hung beside her head, noticing the lack of life anywhere in the home.

She grounded the child, staring ferociously at the bags in his hand. "Whatcha got there Steven?" Her eyes still transfixed to the bags.

"What? You mean these bags full of the most delicious snack in the universe!?" He exclaimed, thrusting his arms skyward, a grin spread so far across his face, it put hyenas to shame. At that, Amethyst's eyes lit up.

"Two bags of fry bits! Geaz Steven, you're guna pop!" She joked, proding Steven's stomach, seeing a look of confusion on his face.

"They're not both for me. One's for you!" Steven grabbed her hand, placing the paper bag in her palm. And once more, up he went, squeezed tightly in her arms.

"Aww, thanks squirt! I knew we kept you around for a reason."

"Hey!" He cried, his pouty little face being potent enough to make a stone cold killer feel bad. Amethyst simply blew him a raspberry.

"Come on ya grumpy guts, we've got to go!" She raised Steven above her head, and raced off towards a large crystalline disk on the floor.

"What's the mission about?" Steven asked as he was placed on the pad, pondering what made Amethyst so excited about this mission in particular.

"Well, there's this giant dragonfly that's messing with a forest, and we need to kick its butt!" Starry eyed Steven simply replied with a wonder filled "Wow!"

The Pad beneath them engulfed the two in a bright blue light, lifting them off the pad and whisking them off to the forest in question. Almost immediately, the two of them began snacking on their treats as they wandered around the uneven wooded area trying to locate their friends.

"So what's so threatening about a big dragonfly?" Steven struggled to ask through the flood of bits steadily filling the cavity in his face. Amethyst had a similar issue with her reply

"I dunno, but if we get to beat it up, then why argue?" Their muffled giggling was cut short, their insides throbbing at the deep vibrations dancing through the blistering winds. The winds grew stronger, blowing Amethyst's mane all over the place, the magnitude of the gale forcing the world for the two of them to become dark. The more and more fierce the winds became, the harder it was to keep their legs from trembling.

Suddenly the winds shifted, them meeting the dusty floor with a thud, as a flat voice sped by. "Let's move."

Amethyst lunged from the ground bounding backwards, a huge grin plastered on her face as she screamed, "I'ma squish that bug!" Steven looked up from the dirt to see a thin pale person running at him.

"Steven, are you ok?" She asked, helping him to his feet.

"What is that thing Pearl!?" he asked hopping on the spot, those starry eyes ever-present.

She began running after the other two with Steven hot on her heels, the large oak's whizzing past them. "That's an Agate Dragonfly, a being capable of…" They became fixed to the spot, viewing the inferno halting their path. "… Expelling an intense flame from its mouth." Pearl sighed, hoisting Steven onto her back, and sprinting around the blaze until they met up with Amethyst and their other friend, standing before a large open meadow.

Amethyst looked at the large block haired woman. "Garnet, what are we just," She cut Amethyst off.

"Set Steven down." nodding, Pearl knelt down to let Steven hop to the floor. "Good." She waited, watching a blob fly from the lunging beast into a tree on the right edge of the area so fast; it caused the oak to topple.

"Well that's unusual." Pearl remarked, touching her chin.

"What do you mean?" Steven asked, looking at Pearl's strawberry-blonde hair.

"It shouldn't be able to launch anything that's not on fire." The beast began to return facing away from them.

"Now." Garnet launched skyward towards the insect, large purple metallic gauntlets appearing around her fists. Pearl and Amethysts gems shone as they retrieved a pearlescent spear and a gem tipped whip respectively, as they too rushed the dragonfly. Steven however, stared at the fallen oak, fixated on Pearls words.

The beast saw the advance, and spiralled skyward out of Garnets path. It didn't matter much. Garnet, seeing the skyward advance, landed on a tree top bending it like a catapult, pursuing the crimson creature's gem studded back once more. Amethyst saw the bug bending downward and bridged the whip, wrapping it around Garnets waist and flinging her down towards the insect. Faintly from above, they heard Garnet call, "Clip the wings!" as it flew straight for them.

Like lightning, Pearl lofted towards the insects wings, waiting till she was inches from the buzzing beast, the currents blocking her vision. Amethyst retracted and shot her whip back up to the wings, lacerating one of the beast's four wings. Pearl, blind to the world, swung downward, feeling resistance on her swing.

Once the blinding gale was behind her, her eyes sprung open. She touched down feeling the ground shudder beneath her. Before her, Garnet rose from her crater. Behind her, the insectoid struggles to wriggle to face its attackers, all but one of its wings ruined. Garnet meets with Pearl as she stands, watching amethyst tear the bugs last wing clear from its skin, seeing said wing disappear in a puff of smoke.

The insect faced the two, its mouth agape and smoke rising up from its depths. Garnet charged the beast as the furious flames erupted from its vicious maw. Pearl dove from the path of the inferno, Garnet engulfed in the warmth of its foe, the sparks bouncing around her, if for just a moment. She lunged out of the flames and slammed her gauntlets on the beast's skull, it bursting into a cloud of smoke, nothing left but a single little stone.

"Well, that went much better than expected." Pearl remarked as Garnet concealed the agate chunk in a pink bubble, it vanishing out of sight.

"Yo Steven, how'd you like that!" Amethyst called bounding into the trees to see his expression, only to speed out almost instantly scratching her head. "Where'd he go?"

"He's gone!?" Pearl's eyes franticly combed the area.

"He's over there, we need to move." Garnet pointed to the fallen tree, his fluffy black curls standing out against all the green. Pearl blew a sigh of relief, sending her spear back to her gem. Amethyst rushing to meet him, the others following suit.

The closer Amethyst got to Steven, the more she noticed that look on his face, as he sat on the other side of the huge aged trunk. Not one of excitement that's for sure, his little stars vanished from them, replaced with a wide shocked stare. She soon found the reason for the big change in little Steven.

"What's up Ste…eww." She peered over the tree to see a person, their arm slammed beneath the trunk; his clothes tattered and holed.

"Is he okay?" Steven asked, frog in throat, still staring.

"He looks kinda dead." Amethyst replied, the others waltzing up behind her.

"What are you talking about Amet… oh goodness." Pearl's face formed a grimace, seeing his shoulder before the trunk, squashed beyond reason.

"Check if he's breathing." Garnet said flatly, throwing the trunk behind them, revealing the flat limb. Pearl's grimace grew seeing the pancake like appendage, amethyst awe struck by the width. Steven took the task upon himself, kneeling below, putting his ear on his back through the forest of black hair smothring his back. His head sunk into the skin, a faint wince escaping from the man's mouth.

"Yeah, he's breathing. But I can barely hear it." Pearl, bracing herself, began feeling his back of his body to check his condition.

"E-Everything's broken." Worried, she looked at Garnet then Amethyst, the latter looking back with the same worried expression.

"I can fix it!" Steven spoke suddenly, sounding a bit more excited, asking pearl to lift the man's shirt up and roll up his pants legs. Steven began smothering his palms in spit, placing his hands on the man's back and repeating. Every time he did so, the man's breaths became more and more audible, until they became full blown gasps.

"That bug probably sent him flying." Amethyst stated, as pearl rolled the man onto his now pristine back.

"He's unimaginably lucky he's still alive. That bug charging him like that should have killed him." Pearl replied, feeling his front for more breaks. Her eyes widened.

"What's wrong?" Steven quizzed, noticing her bewildered expression.

"N-Nothing. Not a single thing out of place." Steven and Amethyst raised their eyebrows, as Garnet knelt beside him, feeling for herself. She froze for just a moment.

"Well that's good." She sat down silent.

"Well Steven, just fix his arm, he'll be fine and we can finish up here." Pearl said, forcing a smile through her confusion.

"I can'ph." Pearl looked at him, confused at the lack of want to help.

"What's up shrimp?" Amethyst asked, sitting beside him.

"No sphhhit." He replied, tongue swollen, and sore.

"Will he be okay with a jacked up arm?" Amethyst pondered, looking at Pearl.

"He'll have a difficult time for a while, and have a potentially useless arm for the rest of his life if we don't repair it, or at the very least force it back into the proper shape." They all frowned, save for Garnet, who cleared her throat. They all looked up at her.

"We'll take him home. It will be easier if we get Steven some water so he can finish fixing him"

**Thoughts?**


	2. Chapter 2

**:Hello again.:**

Chapter 2: Retrieval

A blinding blue flash illuminated the home; Steven, his friends and the battered one draped over Garnets arms enveloped in the glow. "Garnep Garnep, pup him on phe couch!" Dry mouthed Steven bounced up and down on the crystal pad, pointing at the squared couch by the wooden steps leading to Steven's bed.

"Steven, go get some water." She replied, moving casually past them to said couch, Pearl tailing behind her, grasping a tattered bag with dainty grip. Steven nodded, the dried lump smacking his face. He pranced towards the kitchen, amethyst close behind him, giggling at his floppy tongue. Garnet slid the man from her arms, him wincing as his horizontal limb was placed over his chest, Pearl placing the bag on the table beside him.

"Strange one isn't he." Garnet remarked, looking down at Pearl seeing her scratch her head.

"Very. Aside from this ludicrous resilience from the front he exhibits, the way he dresses himself is bizarre too." Pearl scratched her head, looking over the man, wondering what possessed him to wear brown dress shoes with tracksuit bottoms and a t-shirt, or wear black fingerless woollen gloves during the summer. Her inquisitive mind gave way under her scenes. "Oh goodness, he smells like amethysts room!" She looked towards garnet, grasping her beak, only to find a whole lot of nothing. "Garnet?" Her head jerked towards the warp pad, the arched stone slab behind it swirling open.

"The forest is still on fire." Garnet lumbered through the hollow portal as it filled itself back in, the star etched into the rock had its bottom two points glow dissipate. Poised to prance after Garnet, pearl was stopped. Chanting and thumping rung from the opposite side of the room, the demeanour all too familiar to Pearl. The boorish tone mixed with the unruly thumping tore at her mind rending any interest in the man or Garnet asunder, replaced with a sore sigh.

"Amethyst, what are you?" Pearl looked back at them to see Steven standing on the counter dumping a lakes worth of water down his gullet, Amethyst slamming the counter with her fists chanting chug chug chug to her hearts content.

"Steven, don't do that!" Pearl squawked, advancing towards them both, smoothly shifting over the table, and slipping the large jug from his mitts. "You'll make yourself sick drinking that much so quickly."

"Boo!" Amethyst droned as she wiggled her arms, Steven snickering to himself. "Why do you have to wreck all our fun Pearl?" She whined, resting her head in her hands.

"'Wreck your fun?' Well, I'm sorry I'm more concerned about Steven's well-being than you having fun." Pearl swivelled away, arms crossed.

"Steven was fine; you're just acting like a control freak again." Amethyst pouted, rolling her eyes.

"Control freak!?" She squawked, spinning back, slamming her hands on the counter. Steven sighed, ready to intervene and stop them from acting so crazy. He had it all planed out in his head. He was going to jump between them, give a little speech about how teammates aren't supposed to fight, and everything would be ok! That however didn't happen. Before Steven could move even a single inch, the ground shuttered beneath them, the air howling in tandem. All of them spun to the direction of the cacophony.

"That sounds like it came from town." Steven's voice quivered, hopping down off the counter. Pearl and Amethyst looked back at one another, and silently nodded at each other, as Steven rushed out door. Amethyst quickly followed suit, as Pearl opened the window leading to the porch and flung herself out of it.

More rumbling, another blast, a wistful whirl emanated from the starred stone slab. The block haired garnet shot out of the tiny hole in the slab, sailing out the window to battle.

A third rumble and bang, a pair of eyes bursting open. The man tugged the couch with is good arm, teeth grit, eyes watering. His first task complete when he sat up straight; flat limb barely touching the couch. He swung his legs to the floor with a thud, staring wide eyed at his arm. "Jesus, what the hell happened?"He choked out through pained breaths, gathering a lump of his shirt in his capable limb.

He stuffed the lump in his mouth, steeling himself. He prodded the flat edge of the limb, wincing at every touch. Breathing fast, he placed his hand on the shattered shoulder. A shockwave of pain shot through his body as his hand clamped down, moulding the bone underneath with sickening cracks and grinds. Sliding the pressure down the limb; gaging on the pain as he went, howling as he cracked the last finger into place.

Arm throbbing, stiff and bones back in place, he breathed a sigh of relief from his bright red face as he mopped up the puddles on his face with his glove. "I need to move, now!"


End file.
